The US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, has officially reduced the number of religions that can be recognised by the country’s military chaplaincy.

There are now 31 faith codes on the list that services can claim affiliation with. The US Military Chaplain Corps previously recognised 211 religious systems.

Earlier this year, Hegseth, who is a Christian, said the previous system had “ballooned” and was “impractical and unusable, and many codes were never used at all", adding that the vast majority of military members fit under just six of the faith codes.

The revised list comprises 21 Christian denominations, together with Agnostic, Baha’i, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Sikh, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, No Religion and Other Religion.

Systems such as Atheism, Paganism and Humanism have been removed from the list.

Outlining the changes, Anthony Tata, the Under Secretary of Defence for Personnel and Readiness of the United States said the changes would “enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy”, adding that “The new list will provide chaplains with clear, readily available information that will better enable them to anticipate the religious support needs of service members and to provide religious support activities that align with service members’ personal faith and practices”.

However, some critics say the changes undermine the right to exercise freedom of religion. A former US Army chaplain told Military.com the move is a “tragedy and travesty” and a violation of the American Constitution.

“When I raised my hand to become an Army chaplain, I swore that I would support and defend the Constitution,” he said. “The First Amendment is the free exercise of religion for everybody. That's what I was buying into.”

The Pentagon has also directed serving chaplains to replace their rank insignia with their religious insignia. Hegseth said in March that: "A chaplain is first and foremost a chaplain, and an officer second. This change is a visual representation of that fact.

"Specifically unique to the role of a chaplain, they are first and foremost called and ordained by God. And, while they will retain rank as an officer to those they serve, their rank will not be visible".